No Reason
by bloodscorpion4ever
Summary: Many people take their friends for granted, but how will one group of girls react when one of their own suddenly leaves them one day and in a manner that leaves them not only questioning their loyalties to each other, but if their own personal demons played a role in their friend's departure?
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Weekends are always too damn short. No matter who you are or what your situation at school or work is, Friday always seems to be that one weekly celebration ushering in a long and relaxing period of freedom. Still, it always seems that that one period of freedom vanishes seemingly only a few hours later. Summer and winter vacations were always the best. Once the gaming console went on, it seemed like the weekend would disappear.

At least these were the thoughts of one Yukari Tanazaki as she raced towards her job early Monday morning on her used and abused bicycle. It was still only a few weeks away from the start of summer vacation so the possibility of another trip to one beach house owned by her youngest student was enough to keep her motivated and pedal faster. She panted as she zoomed past traffic on the sidewalk and cut into intersections without hesitation, earning several angry honks and shouts from disgruntled drivers.

Still unyielding, Yukari pushed faster as she looked at her watch and grinned. She laughed with satisfaction and proudly muttered, "Gonna make it on time today. No more principal lectures for me!"

The unconventional teacher cracked an egotistical grin and crossed a bridge over a river that curved upward slightly and Azu High School was sitting there as always waiting for her. Fatigue was setting in and she was losing steam but Yukari knew that once she reached the top of the bridge and saw the school ahead of her, she would gain her second wind.

This old pattern once again proved valid when the exhausted woman's eyes captured the large school only less than a mile away from her and her smile grew. Picking up speed as she rode down the hill, something suddenly caught her eye. Up until now, this morning transit to work was a dream come true for a Monday but her worst nightmare was soon about to become a reality.

A train was fast approaching a railroad crossing Yukari would have to pass through if she wanted to make it to school on time. It was a morning transit train, a normal part of the Monday rush and she never beat it before. It was like a reoccurring nemesis, almost as if she was Captain Ahab and the train was her white whale. The crossing guards had not yet activated so there was still time to cross.

Squinting at the train, she yelled, "Not today you bastard!"

Even though she was freely speeding down the bridge, Yukari decided to add more by pedaling faster and she leaned forward, creating a potentially dangerous position for herself. The lights of the crossing began blinking but the arms hadn't lowered yet. Feeling like she was the center attention in an action flick, Yukari put all her effort into it, but even machines have limits against human determination.

The chain on her bike rattled and started to jingle wildly, making Yukari scream, "Oh no, no, no not now damn you!"

The bike chain did not adhere to Yukari's desires and snapped off the gears and got tangled in the spokes of her back wheel. Now losing control, Yukari tried desperately to slow herself down but yet another Monday morning challenge found her when she spotted a small, gray cat bearing a mysteriously toothy grin slowly waltzing into her path.

Natural instincts took over and she swerved her handlebars in every direction she could until she struck a light post on the bridge, turning her bike into a catapult and she quickly assumed the role of the boulder. The screaming teacher flew off her bike and glided into the morning air and the last thing she saw before she plummeted was the gates lowering across the railroad crossing. She could only glare and sigh.

Yukari fell off the bridge and landed with a splash in the river along with her school supplies. Though the water wasn't deep nor was it rushing, it still didn't help the enraged teacher as she sat in the water now soaked. She rested her head on her open palm with her elbow secured on her knee and she leered angrily at the train, which just finished passing by the crossing.

Still sitting in bitter and contemptuous silence, Yukari's watch began beeping on her wrist, just as she heard the morning school bell ring.

"I hate Mondays..."

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

After the inevitable scolding and lecturing from Principal Kitazawa, Yukari sulked in her sloshing wet clothes now smelling like a bayou to her classroom. No doubt they were enjoying this extra half hour freedom to give their Monday a pleasant start, but she was without a doubt going to trample that fire when she arrived. Gripping her moistened and moldy teaching books tightly, she gripped the door and flung it open with all her might.

"This is not a damn social club!" She thundered, making all her students scramble back to their seats as fast as she was pedaling earlier. With every step she took, the students found themselves fighting an uphill battle not to laugh every time their teacher's shoes squished. Yukari reached the front of the desk and angrily pulled out a clipboard with a paper attached to it, also drenched. "Okay...I'll make everyone a deal. You don't ask me what happened and there'll be no homework for tonight. How's that sound?"

The crowd instantly agreed with borderline applause but when Yukari gave them her look again, the silence reformed in the room.

"Alrighty then...time to take attendance." Yukari stated and began calling off the names of her students. "Mihama, Chiyo."

"Here, Miss Yukari." The cute and eleven year old prodigy said with her usual cheery and optimistic smile.

"Mizuhara, Koyomi."

"Here." The taller and more responsible student announced while adjusting her glasses.

"Osaka." Yukari called but several seconds past and there was no response. "Osaka?!"

The body of students turned towards the chair that was usually occupied by their infamous spacey transfer student and found her staring into space. She was instantly brought back to reality when a piece of chalk from Yukari's hand launched and struck her in the head.

"Hello?! Earth to Osaka!" Yukari screamed angrily, making the walls vibrate.

"Oh...good morning Miss Yukari...hey...why y'all wet like that?" She asked.

The teacher gritted her teeth and announced, "Okay, just for that, ten page essay for everyone tonight on why you shouldn't piss your teacher off!"

Groans and sighs erupted in the classroom and some scolded Osaka, though she was still unable to comprehend what was happening around her as Yukari moved on.

"Sakaki?" Yukari asked.

"Oh...here." The tall and quiet girl was able to quickly snap herself out of her daydreaming from out the window.

"Takino, Tomo?" Yukari asked.

Silence.

"Hey, where the hell are you, Takino?!" Yukari yelled again, now becoming more irritated.

"She's not here today, Miss Yukari. I haven't seen her since yesterday." Yomi announced for her.

Yukari glanced over Yomi's shoulder and saw the empty desk where the also infamous wildcat used to occupy but today was now property of thin air. The teacher glared and noted, "Okay so she's skipping school today. Got it. Thanks, Yomi."

Yomi rolled her eyes but couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of Yukari scolding Tomo for yet another stupid antic of hers. A thought did suddenly occur to Yomi though as the teacher finished roll call and began the class. Tomo, as usual, stopped by her house the previous night at her window. While Yomi did her homework and Tomo read another magazine, it remained unusually quiet between the two girls.

Tomo then took it in a weird direction and started talking about some very strange things. Things that weren't very becoming of her personality. She started asking Yomi why we were all here on Earth, was there some giant and all knowing power watching over them, and, the one that Yomi remembered the most, "What is our relevance in the universe? Just like what is a housefly's relevance to the concept of existence?"

Yomi was barely listening but she just took all those questions as one of Tomo's weird attempts at trying to mess with her for being more academically focused over her or the rest of her knucklehead team. Whenever Tomo would get like that, it would become so easy for Yomi to simply call her an idiot and brush her off. Still, before Tomo climbed out her window again, she did say something that for some reason still puzzled Yomi.

"Sometimes...I just think there's no reason."

Before Yomi could ask Tomo what she meant, the usually happy and eccentric girl jumped out her window again and was gone. Now her desk sat alone without the Azu High wildcat to terrorize the classroom or the school. Still, Yomi didn't think much of it.

No one else dared speak to Yukari for the rest of the day as she struggled in her wet wardrobe to get through the day. Even just making it to lunchtime seemed like a milestone for her and when the noon bell tolled, she was gone again, though still pissed that she would be spending her lunch hour running home to change clothes and running back.

As for the students, most of them stayed and ate their packed lunches while others opted for the cafeteria. The group of girls in Chiyo, Yomi, Sakaki, Osaka, and Kagura minus Tomo chose to eat their packed lunches in the classroom and while their conversations stayed rather mundane and trivial, Chiyo did eventually bring up a subject that was stirring in the back of everybody's minds.

"So um, where do you think Tomo is, Miss Yomi?" Chiyo asked with childish curiosity as she stuffed a meatball into her mouth.

Yomi shrugged. "Who knows? She's probably out skipping school like Yukari said earlier."

"Skipping school?! Why on Earth would anyone want to do that?" Chiyo exclaimed. "Doesn't Tomo understand how important it is, not to mention how much trouble she could get into if she's caught?"

Yomi sighed and shook her head. "I wouldn't even bother worrying about her, Chiyo-chan. She's at that age now where she's her own problem so I would only focus on yourself and your studies."

"Unacceptable!" Kagura suddenly roared, making everyone (aside from Osaka) jump. "That damn Tomo! She just needs to keep one-upping me, doesn't she! If it's not the knuckleheads, then it's being the first one to play hooky! Well I'll show her! Starting tomorrow, I'll skip two days of school, I swear it!"

Yomi narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, and tell us how that works out when the cops pick you up for truancy. Sakaki, Osaka, don't you two have anything to add?"

Sakaki was busy staring out the window once again, still seemingly locked in an incessant dream focused on the clouds. Her other friends didn't know it however, but Sakaki was seeing cats in the clouds and her complacent smiled accompanied by a slight blush illustrated her desire for one. Osaka on the other hand was able to keep her focus on the conversation, though not in the way Yomi had hoped.

"Hey Kagura...how exactly do ya skip school? Do ya do like a hopscotch deal past it or somethin' like that?" She asked, her smile still wide and face showing a vacant expression.

Yomi groaned and massaged her exhausted eyes with her thumb and index finger under her glasses. "Chiyo-chan, sometimes I think only you and I are the only sane people left out there."

The youngest of the group giggled uncomfortably by the observation but an idea suddenly clicked in Chiyo's mind. "Wait, what if Tomo is sick?"

"With her energy and attitude, I don't even see how that's possible. Maybe she got sick of herself." Yomi giggled a bit at the end.

"I say we at least stop by her house on our way home today to make sure she's okay." Chiyo added with clear enthusiasm.

Normally Yomi wouldn't even bother with such an errand as she's seen this kind of scenario by Tomo before. In her mind, her friend from grade school was either skipping school or making this some kind of a prank. If anything, she could even be faking an illness to garner sympathy then laugh at them for falling for it. Still, Yomi could see how much visiting Tomo meant to Chiyo so she agreed to accompany her to the wildcat's house.

Yukari Tanazaki was out the door and speeding down the street even as the final bell for the day echoed throughout the school. This was without a doubt a Monday to forget and the faster she got home, the better off she was. The rest of the students however took their time getting out, some even saying goodbye to their teachers for the day, which was always the case for Minamo Kurosawa. Still, Chiyo and her friends walked together and exited the school on this warm day and began trekking towards the neighborhood where Tomo's residence was established.

Their conversations on the way there were still somehow routine and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It always seemed that Yomi and Chiyo were always able to connect the most through their mutual respect for studying and academics, while Kagura still pursued Sakaki in joining a sports team with her. Osaka on the other hand always seemed to be locked in her own world fantasizing about something as she stared up at the blue sky.

"Well, here we are." Yomi finally announced after a short walk and they stood before the Takino household. "Tomo's parents should still be at work so there's really no need for formalities."

Yomi walked up and turned the doorknob without knocking or ringing the doorbell since she's done it before when it was just her and Tomo hanging out. They casually walked inside the quiet house as Chiyo also reluctantly followed since she's never really entered a home without signaling her presence first.

The girls, especially Yomi, felt something strange the very second they walked into the house, however. It was like some strange omnipresence that came with the even more so quiet household. The home was so quiet, they could even hear the natural ringing in their eardrums. Being inside now somehow felt like being in the movie Paranormal Activity during the nighttime scenes before the creepy stuff would happen.

"Tomo? Hey Tomo, are you home?" Yomi called.

Silence.

Chiyo suddenly clung to Yomi's skirt. "Miss Yomi...it's a little scary in here."

"It's okay, Chiyo-chan. It's just Tomo's house." Yomi gently reassured with a smile. "Let me check her room upstairs and if she's not there then we'll go."

Yomi walked up the stairs and Kagura followed, taking in as much as she could from her wildcat rival with intentions of eyeing her room for any psychological edge over her. The two girls arrived at the top of the steps and Tomo's room was the first door in a hallway with her parent's room next to it, and the main bathroom at the end of the hall.

Yomi gently knocked on the door. "Tomo?"

Downstairs, Chiyo switched from Yomi to Sakaki and the tall girl was happy to hold Chiyo's hand as they waited. Chiyo looked up at her and said, "This is a mystery, isn't it Miss Sakaki?"

"Oh...well, I guess so." She gently replied and looked around. The tallest member of the group suddenly noticed a strange observation about the house. It was clean. Not just for a normal house, but it still smelt of furniture spray and ammonia from the kitchen floor. She could also see the track marks from a vacuum cleaner on the smooth carpet in the living room.

Yomi slowly opened the door to Tomo's room and looked inside. The room was vacant and Tomo was nowhere to be found, but Yomi also took notice of something peculiar about the room. It was clean. Freshly cleaned as well.

She closed the door. "Wow. She even made her bed and everything. That's not really like her."

Kagura shrugged and folded her hands across her chest. "Well I don't know where she could've gone."

Yomi hummed as she too was now becoming a little uneasy about this setting. It wasn't like Tomo to simply not show up to school one day and then suddenly decide to clean her room in addition to the whole house before disappearing. Yomi sighed and said, "Okay that does it. I'm calling her cell."

As Yomi pulled out her cell phone and began dialing Tomo's number, Kagura's voice stopped her. It wasn't even what she said that stopped Yomi. It was how she said it. Yomi could feel the sheer presence of fright and horror within the swimmer's voice when she uttered the first of many things regarding Tomo.

"...Oh my god..."

Yomi looked up and saw the usually tanned athlete was now white as a fresh snowstorm in January and she was staring down the hall at the bathroom door. It was wide open and they could see most of the fixtures in it but the tacky setup wasn't what caused Kagura such frigid and budding despair.

Yomi looked down on the floor and saw a pair of human feet resting there lifelessly covered by a pair of pink socks. She could also make out the shape and structures of the two legs attached to the feet snaking their way towards the body they were attached to, also resting on the floor and obscured by wall.

The phone slipped from Yomi's grip and when it struck the floor and echoed all throughout the quiet house, they panicked. "Tomo!" Yomi cried and sprinted forward and was chased by Kagura.

They tore into the bathroom and Yomi nearly screamed when she found her lifelong friend in Tomo Takino stretched out on the bathroom floor with several empty pill bottles scattered around her head. A small trail of foam was dripping from her darkened lips and her skin was ice cold upon Kagura touching it to clear the foam away and begin performing CPR. Her eyelids were also closed, almost like curtains signaling the end of a final act on a performance stage.

"Come on, Tomo, come on!" Kagura screamed with all her might as she pushed down on her rival's chest and connected her lips with Tomo's to force fresh air into her lungs.

The two girls were so focused on their unconscious friend, they didn't hear Sakaki rush up the stairs, who had left Chiyo with Osaka downstairs and she shrieked when she saw the cause of such commotion. She glanced down and saw Yomi's cell phone sitting there and she instinctually did her part by snatching it and calling for help.

"Oh god...she's so cold...!" Yomi cried. "Please, Tomo, please! Please breathe!"

Kagura still performed CPR on the unresponsive Tomo for another sixty seconds until Yomi sat back and the cabinets below the sink caught her. Tears were streaking freely from her eyes and Sakaki slowly approached, also dripping water from her eyes and breathing deeply at what she was seeing. Kagura was the only one left who still wouldn't accept fate as she kept pushing down on Tomo's chest and breathing into her.

It was when Yomi slowly reached up and grabbed her arm and whispered, "Kagura..."

The dim-witted but still kindhearted girl looked at Yomi and when she saw the waterfalls falling from under Yomi's glasses, her body clenched and she did the same. The waterworks for her began as well and she quickly covered her mouth in horror of what just transpired here and she sat back bluntly, the cabinets also catching her as she wept next to Yomi.

"What in the world is happening?!" Chiyo called from downstairs and Sakaki looked down the stairs and saw the young girl about to ascend them.

"Stay down there!" She screamed, making the young girl jump and nearly tear up herself from the harsh and loud words.

Kagura couldn't take it anymore. She turned away from the horrendous scene and buried her face into Yomi's bosom, who quickly hugged her but she herself couldn't take her eyes off Tomo's lifeless and pale corpse. Tomo's eyes were shut and if it weren't for the pale complexion accompanied by the empty pill bottles scattered everywhere, she would've thought Tomo was simply asleep.

As the two girls hugged each other in the bathroom, they could suddenly hear ambulances fast approaching the house. However, by the time the paramedics stormed into the bathroom, Kagura had already done all they could have for her.

Tomo Takino was pronounced dead at the scene.

*A/N: First attempt at an Azumanga Daioh fic so definitely know what you think! Should I continue...?


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

No one saw it coming. The very thought of it never even crossed anyone's minds. She always seemed like such a happy and eccentric young woman and she didn't give off any red flags. Not even the very last conversation she ever had seemed to be out of the ordinary. Strange and random maybe, but not enough that one would say that it would lead to the shocking and horrid suicide of Tomo Takino.

As the group of now fractured high school girls sat on the curb outside the Takino household, all they wanted at this point was to go home as the sights of police cars and an ambulance carrying their departed friend away was too much for them. Watching Tomo's parents cry in each other's arms as a police officer talked to them was enough to bring Chiyo to tears as she sobbed into Sakaki's bosom while the taller girl hugged her close and gently stroked her head.

As Tomo's closest friend, a police officer also approached Yomi, her glasses stained and fogged from her tears and asked questions while the rest of her friends sat back and watched.

"So she didn't say _anything_ to you about wanting to die or feeling depressed?" The officer asked.

Yomi shook her head. "No...she didn't say anything like that. She only told me what I told you. That she was asking a lot of deep questions about life and the only thing that struck me as odd was that whole 'no reason' comment."

"And you have no idea what she meant by it? Maybe it was part of another conversation you had with her or maybe she saw it in a movie or something?" The officer asked again.

Yomi shrugged as she wiped more tears away. "I don't know...all I know is that she never came to me about anything. As far as I knew...nothing was bothering her."

The officer nodded slowly as he took her notes. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Miss, I understand you're upset that your friend is gone and we will do everything in our power to find out the reason...but sometimes your friend is actually right. Sometimes...there really is no reason. Our officers have already searched the entire house and we found no suicide note or anything. We did find her diary and are analyzing it for anything that could explain why this happened but from what we've garnered so far, it's not a promising lead. Her last entry just talked about how boring the weekend was."

Yomi looked at him through her blurry vision and looked away. She whispered to herself, "There's...there's just no way...Tomo...she would never...without a reason..."

"I'm sorry again for your loss, miss." The officer patted her shoulder gently and turned to leave.

The shaken and internally battered Koyomi Mizuhara gulped and slowly turned back to her friends and could see the craving for truth and logic in their broken faces. They wanted to know why their wildcat had dealt them a devastating blow by taking her own life yet Yomi was left with no words of comfort for them.

"What...what did they say?" Kagura sniffed.

Yomi shook her head. "They don't know why she did it. There was no note or anything. It was like she woke up one day and decided to do this."

Kagura rightfully gave a confused and upset look as none of the girls could comprehend why this was happening to them. Though none of them would admit it, Tomo was one of their more beloved members of their circle just because of her vibrance alone. Even if someone was having a bad day, her antics would usually in some way, shape, or form make them laugh on the inside, even if those said antics also pissed them off in the process. Now she was gone...and it seemed like for no reason.

"Miss...Miss Yomi...?" Chiyo's crying voice penetrated deep into Yomi's body and drove a knife into her heart. "I don't understand. Why...why would she...? It doesn't make any sense...!"

Her eyes still drenched as well, Yomi slowly bent down to their youngest and most innocent friend and opened her arms, which Chiyo wasted no time running to and Yomi hugged her. Allowing Chiyo to vent her anguish, Yomi whispered, "I know, Chiyo, I know. I wish I had the answers as well...but I don't think we're going to get them anytime soon."

As the young girl cried into her bosom, Yomi didn't know which was more devastating; the fact that her best friend had committed suicide, or that she was watching a child slowly begin to lose her innocence due to this tragedy. One would think it was the former, but seeing Chiyo Mihama cry with such despair was making it very close.

"Chiyo-chan is right. It doesn't make any sense..." Sakaki whispered to herself as she rested her forehead in her open palm. "There has to be a reason why this happened...and we have to find it out."

While the rest of the girls were busy sitting and crying their eyes out as their night became longer and longer, the last member was lost in a deep pattern of thought. Osaka remained motionless and speechless throughout the whole ordeal and continued to do something that not many people gave her credit for. She continued to think. She thought about this event and something even more deep. Her past. Her thoughts raced in her mind as she sat like lawn ornament.

_Tomo...she killed herself...but why...? It makes me think...before I moved to Tokyo...in Osaka...I...I...wanted to do the same thing. What I went through before I came here...I wanted to die. Was Tomo suffering in silence, too? What if she was going through what I did? Her parents look devastated...but what if it's just a show...like it was at my home? It could be possible. I want to find out..._

By the time darkness had fallen across Japan, the initial shock from today's ordeal was over, but the devastation was still an open and bleeding wound. Even when Tomo's parents thanked them for being there and expressed their gratitude for trying to save their daughter, they also apologized that it became their burden to find her to begin with. No doubt that the horror of finding the deceased Tomo on the bathroom floor was going to stick with them for a long time. Still, the girls couldn't help but feel even more devastated for Tomo's parents since they're the ones who lost their only child on this day.

When the girls had to go their separate ways,their own families were waiting for them with open arms, aside from one of them anyway. Their parents wanted to keep them home from school the next day to recover from the trauma they were forced to endure, but they were all on the same page with each other. They wanted to be together in school the next day. The last thing they wanted was to be quarantined from the outside world like some contagious patient at a hospital and not be together at the one place that brought so many memories together for them. It still was going to be very hard as news of Tomo's suicide would reach the rest of the students by tomorrow.

The next morning, every student at Azu High School returned with the sight of cherry blossom petals falling around them on yet another warm day. Their happy and innocent discourse in the schoolyards as they approached the building only illustrated their ignorance to the tragedy that struck them all the night before.

When the young and innocent Chiyo Mihama walked into the classroom with a raincloud over her head and tears in her puffy eyes, everyone took notice as she shuffled to her seat and was soon followed by the others. All the classmates rushed over to her and she suddenly felt like a celebrity surrounded by the paparazzi, only this time they actually cared about how she felt instead of wanting to capture her bad side on camera.

"Chiyo-chan, what's wrong?" Chihiro asked quickly, only to earn a silent head shake from the girl.

Before any of her classmates could dive any further into the cause of her dismay, the intercom system in the classroom crackled and the principal's voice sounded all throughout the school.

"Attention students...I must regrettably inform you all of a very unfortunate event that took place last night. Tomo Takino of class 3-3 tragically passed away last night." He said, creating an avalanche of gasps in the classroom and Chiyo resumed crying, as did the rest of her friends who were at the Takino household last night. "The circumstances surrounding her death are still being investigated but this is without a doubt a serious loss to our student body and if any student needs to talk about it, our guidance counselors are standing by for anyone. We ask that you keep Tomo and her family in your thoughts and prayers as we try to heal and move on from this horrible event. Thank you and try to have a nice day."

When the principal's voice disappeared from the intercom, the students who were surrounding Chiyo instantly began comforting her again. Though many of her classmates usually thought of Tomo as being the loud and annoying one of the class, they still sympathized with the young girl. For only being eleven years old and experiencing the pain of losing a friend by suicide was a tragic circumstance for her.

While most of the girls tried to console Chiyo, Yomi abruptly stood and exited the classroom when the principal's speech concluded. When he said there were guidance counselors ready to talk, Yomi decided to leap onto the opportunity as she was still convinced that she played a role in Tomo's suicide. Even just by remaining silent after all those things Tomo said to her on Sunday night was enough to make Yomi believe that she was an accessory to a murder.

As she approached the door, it opened and Yukari Tanizaki stepped in with her teacher's books and a dry set of clothes this time but still held a placid face. She looked as if she was completely oblivious to the death of one of her pupils but the teacher still knew. Yomi whispered her permission to be excused, which Yukari shrugged and allowed her casually, almost as if she didn't care.

When Yomi left the room, Yukari stood at the front of the class and began writing her English lessons for the day on the board. As she wrote them, the class was dumbfounded that their teacher didn't say anything about the tragic news that struck their classroom.

When she finally turned around, she had a strange and even creepy smile on her face. In a suddenly cheery and vibrant voice, she exclaimed, "Hey now, why the long faces today?! Turn those frowns upside-down and let's get down to business! Nothing solves a bad case of the gloomies like school work!"

The class remained confused and even a little unsettled to see their teacher suddenly swoop in and begin one of her nicer sides without so much as a word about Tomo. The bright smile on her face accompanied by her sincere charm was enough to even frighten some. It was as if she honestly and truly didn't care that Tomo had died and that it was just another day for everyone, herself included.

As Kagura watched, she found herself suddenly becoming angry over her teacher's grim treatment of their departed friend. She raised her hand and announced, "Miss Yukari, don't you know that Tomo is gone?"

Yukari stopped writing on the board and eyed her. "I know, Kagura, but like the principal said, try and have a nice day and move on."

The unusually quaint response from her only fueled Kagura's aggression, especially considering the role she played when they found Tomo's body. "So that's it?! You don't care?! Did you know that Yomi and I were the ones who found her body in her bathroom?! Did you know that I tried to use all the CPR Miss Kurosawa taught me on the swim team to try and save her but couldn't?!"

The classroom gasped and the bubbling drama started to come to a boil as Kagura stood and Chiyo started crying loudly.

"Now that you know all of this, how do you feel now?!" Kagura thundered. "Yomi and I tried our best to save her but she was already dead in our arms! Do you know what it's like to try and revive not only a dead person, but that they're also your friend?! And you come in and you don't care! You just don't care!"

"Enough!" A loud and angry voice tore through the room like a bomb and to make it even more surprising, it didn't come from Yukari. It came from the usually quiet and reclusive Sakaki.

The tallest student in the classroom was standing up as well with an angry expression on her face, one that made her already seemingly cold personality that much more in-depth. Some of the students even felt chills run down their backs as they stared at her. Instead of being mad at Yukari for her lack of sympathy, she directed her hostilities at Kagura.

"That's enough from you! Look at Chiyo!" Sakaki yelled at her.

Everyone shifted their eyes to the child prodigy, only to find her mind deep into the field of despair as she kept her face covered and sobbed loudly. Her cries were buried by Kagura's angry voice but now she was the center of the universe. Osaka scooted closer to her and latched onto her shoulders. Some of the other classmates added their physical support to the distraught girl as Kagura took her seat again, now feeling even worse than before.

At the guidance counselor's office, Yomi sat outside with a face that showed an emotional breakdown on the horizon. She sat in a chair and twiddled her thumbs, the only thing left she could do from keeping herself from going insane as she waited to be seen. It wasn't a moment too soon when the door opened up and the female guidance counselor poked her head out.

"Mizuhara?"

Yomi nodded.

"Come on in and let's talk."

She stood and followed the counselor into her office and sat down. It didn't quite feel like a therapy session until she asked, "So tell me, Miss Mizuhara, how are you feeling today? I assume you're here about Takino."

Yomi nodded again silently.

"Were you close to her?"

The tears flooded in Yomi's eyes and she nodded again, making two drops fall out. "She was...she was...my best friend..."

"Oh dear...I'm so sorry for your loss, dear." The counselor said.

"Me and another friend were the ones who found her...in her bathroom. She had swallowed so many pills." Yomi choked. "I...I can't help but think it was my fault. She said some strange things to me the night before she died..."

"What did she say?"

It took a little bit to get Yomi to calm down again but she was eventually able to reveal Tomo's last conversation. She began by recalling her last encounter.

"She stopped by my house on Sunday night, which she did every now and then and we would sometimes talk about anything or I would do my homework while she would read a magazine or something." Yomi explained. "On Sunday night, her topics were a little random. She started by asking me, 'Yomi, why do you think we are here?' I wasn't really listening so I just hummed. She then added, 'I mean, look at it this way. We as humans believe we're in control of everything, but we're really not. We can't control the weather, we can't control natural disasters, sickness, or even war. We can't control anything that's truly meaningful on this planet, yet we live on it like we own it. It kind of makes my existence feel insignificant when compared to the rest of the galaxy. I heard on a science channel once that there are planets out there that are over a thousand times bigger than our sun. It makes me realize how truly small we really are. Have you also stopped to consider all the religions in our world, too? We try to live in peace, but there's always fighting over them. What kind of god would allow violence to justify their existences...if they even exist. Is it possible that 'God' is a man made concept to make ourselves feel better about how truly trivial our existences are? To give our lives meaning? What about a housefly? What is a housefly's purpose or relevance to life? Taking from what I said earlier about how truly big the galaxy is, maybe _we_ are the ones who are the houseflies compared to the rest of existence or this vast cosmetic reality. Maybe these houseflies are visual aids to show us how pointless our lives truly are and we prove that to ourselves whenever we swat one. Whenever we swat a fly and so easily, it's almost like a metaphor for Earth and the galaxy swatting us with earthquakes, hurricanes, or tsunamis. You know...sometimes...I just think there's no reason.'"

As Yomi took deep breaths to recover from what she told the guidance counselor, she could tell that even the school therapist thought that this was tough and deep subject matter.

"That is all very deep stuff, Miss Mizuhara. Was Takino normally a deep person?" The counselor asked.

Yomi couldn't help but role her eyes. "About as deep as a puddle. I honestly thought she was trying to insinuate something about me. She wasn't the best student so she always made fun of me for being a good one and I just thought another case of Tomo being Tomo. I had no idea something was bothering her."

The counselor scratched her chin and hummed. "Sounds to me like nothing was bothering her. Sounds like she was just curious about existence and why we as a human race are here on Earth."

"But there has to be a reason why she did it!" Yomi exclaimed, already getting sick of going around in circles. "It just doesn't make any sense! The police didn't even find a suicide note or anything! There was nothing that told us why she did it!"

The counselor nodded gently. "I hate to say it, dear, but maybe there really was no reason."

"Explain that to me! What does that even mean?!"

The counselor slowly shook her head. "I wish I could tell you, dear. None of us will never know the last thoughts Takino had before she swallowed all those pills, and even if we did, maybe we wouldn't know why she did it even then."

Yomi stuttered uncontrollably until she uttered, "But...but..."

"I know it's hard to accept, my dear, but your friend didn't sound depressed or scared, just curious." The counselor added.

"And that was justification to kill herself?!" Yomi screeched while crying.

The counselor shrugged. "Maybe in her mind it was. I'm sorry, dear, but we'll just never know."

Hearing the grim possibility slowly becoming her new reality, Yomi slowly sat back in her chair and placed her face into her two conjoined palms. All she could do was cry. "Why...why would she do this to us? We were her friends. We were always right here for her...now she's taken herself away from us. That...that's not fair..."

The counselor stood and hugged the crying student in her office.

When the final bell tolled that day, Yukari carried her supplies back to the teacher's lounge and she sat in her chair at the cluttered and messy desk that was her own and sighed. "Man...glad that day is over."

Her best friend and fellow teacher in Minamo Kurosawa slowly approached her with a sad expression and gently sat down next to her. "Hey...I'm really sorry about your student," she whispered with remorse and added, "Kagura told me about the blowup she had in your class."

Yukari shrugged. "Hey, no tears out of my eyes. She was upset so I don't care."

Minamo shot her a looked that mirrored Kagura's initial shocked expression. "You...you don't care? At all?"

Yukari stretched her arms up high and shook her head. "Nope. Why should I? Takino wasn't my kid."

Minamo gawked with horror at her. "But she was in a way. She was your student and she committed suicide and you're not upset about it? Kagura was crying her eyes out, same with the rest of her friends."

"Look, Nyamo, I get what you're trying to do, but I'm not like that. I'm not going to waste my time groveling over some poor little girl who was probably a closeted emo or something who wrote poems about death and cutting herself." Yukari huffed coldly. "Whenever we're faced with something like this, the best thing we can do is turn this negative energy into kinetic energy and come out of it a much better person."

"That's a rather cold sentiment." Minamo sighed. "Sometimes I worry about you."

Yukari shrugged and laughed happily, a gesture that was even more disturbing than her earlier rant. "Oh forget about it. You wanna go drinking later?"

Minamo leered at her and stood from her chair. "No. I'd rather call the Takino household and offer my condolences to them like a good teacher and overall decent human being and I am going to do that right now."

Minamo angrily stood from her chair and walked away from her seemingly coldhearted friend as Yukari shrugged again. Yukari then added, "Whatever. I'm just fine. I have all the things I need either in my video games or at the bar scene. I'm fine."

Yukari felt a small lump in her throat swell to a noticeable size and she slowly began to chew on her lower lip, as if she was trying to hold something in and bury it. An emotion she didn't want anyone to see as her upper lip bounced rhythmically.

"...I'm fine...I'm completely fine...I'll be fine..."


End file.
